Presentation/slideshow apps (was: ... DNS and BIND)

[Ben Scott]

On 10/24/07, Kent Johnson <kent37 at tds.net> wrote:
> So, is there a better way to author S5 than being really, really careful
> while writing XHTML by hand and using an XHTML validator a lot?

  I actually don't think S5 is as picky as Ted says, although that may
depend on browser, complexity of your markup, specific XHTML abuses
perpetrated, phase of the moon, etc.

  In the past, I've used MagicPoint (MGP)
(http://member.wide.ad.jp/wg/mgp/) for presentation slides.  MGP is
nice because simple slides use extremely simple markup.  It's similar
in concept to wiki markup -- old-fashioned, plain-text conventions
adapted into a markup language.  I still like a lot of it.

  But MGP has issues, too.  You need to have the MGP software
installed to render the slideshow, and it's X11-only.  It doesn't
always handle text resizing well or easily.  Some markup is rather
cumbersome (like changing the font in-line, something I do a lot).
More advanced tricks are often just not possible.  Image
resizing/zooming isn't supported (AFAIK).  HTML can be produced from
an MGP, but it's a separate file.  Jumping between slides requires you
to know the slide number.

  S5 (http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/) is attractive because it's
all HTML, so just about any web browser (even Lynx) can at least view
the slides "as is".  JavaScript and CSS enable the super-slick
slide-show presentation.  Firefox already supports on-the-fly text and
image resizing.  S5 gives you a nifty pick-list with slide titles for
jumping.  Just about any HTML/CSS/browser feature can be used, which
makes it a lot more capable than MGP.  For example, not only can I
more easily change the font in-line with a SPAN block, I can also put
a box around it and change the background color.

  The major drawback to S5 is also that it's all HTML.  :)  While HTML
can be made fairly simple, it still isn't as uncluttered as
MagicPoint's markup.  You get sometimes have to worry about browser
idiosyncrasies and JavaScript glitches.  But still, I think S5 wins
over MGP.

  If you actually *want* a WYSIWYG GUI, well, I can't help you there,
sorry.  Real men use text editors for everything.  ;-)

> ... PowerPoint on Mac OSX ...

 FWIW, I've heard good things OpenOffice.org Impress, and it
supposedly runs on MacOS X if you have X11 installed.

-- Ben